VERMILLION, S.D. – Max Oesterling, the son of Jeffrey and Dana Oesterling of Custer, correctly spelled “pronouncement” to win the oral competition of the University of South Dakota Scripps Spelling Bee on March 23.

Oesterling, an eighth grade student who participated in the bee as a representative of the South Dakota Christian Home School Association, advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 26-31. In addition to winning a trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in the National Spelling Bee, he also received a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 12th Edition, donated by Merriam-Webster.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is administered on a not-for-profit basis by the E.W. Scripps Company and local spelling bee sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The competition is open for students in first grade through the eighth grade.